Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Preview

ActionTrip has put together a two-page preview of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, just before the RPG hits store shelves. Here's a bit of what to expect:
The in-movie sequences called Story Cards are mostly eye-candy, but also serve to inform the non-enlightened ones of the events that are taking place in Middle-earth. I also have to mention that, apart from them, a boatload of material in connection to the original movie was used, such as the 3D modeling data created by WETA. In fact, The Third Age is being done in collaboration with WETA, so the results should be more than satisfactory.

When you switch from adventure to combat mode, you are allowed to fight with only three of your characters. The good thing is that you can change and replace them with the remaining characters during the battle unless they are surrounded by the enemy. Even if a character did not participate in the battle or got killed during one, they will still gain experience, so when they gain a level you can distribute points the way you like. The chars are standard and include strength, spirit, constitution, dexterity, and speed. When you assign points to different chars, you develop your character in a certain direction, so that you can manage all members of your party the way you like.